Horváth Attila – H. Tóth Elvira szerk.: Cumania 4. Archeologia (Bács-Kiskun Megyei Múzeumok Közleményei, Kecskemét, 1976)
Marcsik A.: Izsák-Balázspuszta honfoglaláskori leletének embertani jellemzése
BY ANTÓNIA MARCSIK THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL DES< FROM THE PERIOD О CONQUEST FOUND AT The human skeleton found in a grave at Izsák—Balázspuszta excavated by the Katona József Museum of Kecskemét got to the collection of the Department of Anthropology in the spring of 1974. According to the information obtained from Mrs. E. H. Tóth, the excavator, the grave was rich in finds and was dated to the Period of the Hungarian Conquest. The age of death of the comparatively well preserved skeleton can be estimated to 18—20 years (Juv.) considering that the proximal epiphyses of the humeurs and tibia and the distal epiphysis of the femur are not fused with their diaphyses, the synchondrosis sphenoccipitalis is open, and also the eruption of the M 3 is not complete in the upper row of teeth. Its sex is, according to the sex determining characteristics of the pelvis, undoubtedly male. The brain-skull is medium long, wide and medium high; brachykran, orthokran and tapeinokran. The contour of the skull is pentagonoid in the norma verticalis, house-shaped in the norma occipitalis, the protuberantia occipitalis externa shows the grade No. 1 according to the Broca scheme, the forehead is wide and metriometop, and the glabella is moderately strong. On the basis of its capacity the skull is aristenkephal. The orbit is rounded, hypsikonch, the fossa canina is shallow. The processus mastoideus is strong, the root of the nose is indented, the back of the nose is flat. The rami of the mandible are divergent, the protuberantia mentalis of the horizontal part is strong. 1 1 MARTIN, R. : Lehrbuch der Anthropologie, 2nd ed. Jena 1928. — LIPTÁK P. : Embertan és emberszármazástan. (Anthropology and the origin of the man.) Budapest 1971. 2 TÖRŐ I. — CSABA Gy. : Az ember normális és patológiás fejlődése. (The normal and pathological development of the man.) II, Budapest 1964. :RIPTION OF THE SKELETON F THE HUNGARIAN IZSÁK-BALÁZSPUSZTA The skeleton does not show any anatomical variation, on the other hand, there is a striking developmental abnormity on the facial part of the skull causing the deformation of one side of the skull in the soil. The right and left maxillae do not close (gnatoschisis) 2 , and a funnel-shaped gap can be seen between them (Fig. la). The explanation of this phenomenon is that the os intermaxillare (or os incisivum) did not develop from the processus medialis in the embryonal life. The post mortem origin of the lack of the os incisivum can be excluded for that edge of the maxilla which would have been connected to the above bone is conspicuously smooth. This lack was supposedly combined with hare-lip (cheiloschisis) in the life of the individual. In the upper row of teeth four incisors and the left canine are congenitally missing, and the right upper canine is abnormally located. In the palate the processus palatini are connected in a ca. five mm. long section right behind the funnel-shaped gap mentioned above then in the direction of the sutura palatina mediana they split forming a longitudinal fissure which is wider on the left side (Fig. lb). This phenomenon leads us to conclude that the individual had a cleft palate (platoschysis). A similar abnormity was described by Lipták & Farkas on the maxilla of an individual in the grave No. 149 of the cemetery of Szatymaz from the Period of the Árpád Dynasty 3 . Another, however less serious developmental abnormity of the skeleton can be seen on its sacral bone 4 (canalis sacralis apeitus; see Fig. lc). 3 LIPTÁK, P. - FARKAS, Gy. : Anthropological examination of the Arpadian Age population of Szatymaz (10th to 12th centuries). Acta Univ. Szeged., 13 (1967) 71-120. 4 VYHÁNEK, L. : Analyse der pathologischen Knochenbefunde aus der slawischen Begräbnisstätte von Bilina. Anthrop., 9/2 (1971) 129-135.
